Death

The cessation of life and the state that follows. The Scriptures speak of: (1) the first death, the common lot of all humans as the natural result of Adam’s sin ( Rom. 5:12 ; 1 Cor. 15:22 ; Heb. 9:27 ); (2) “the second death,” the “wages,” or penalty of sin, at the end of the millennium ( Rom. 6:23 ; Rev. 2:11 ; 20:14 ; 21:8 ); (3) spiritual death “in trespasses and sins,” the condition of those who have never accepted Christ, or who, having accepted Him, fall away ( Rom. 8:6 ; Eph. 2:1 , 5 , 6 ; Col. 2:13 ; 1 Tim. 5:6 ); and (4) death to sin, which accompanies the new birth ( Rom. 6:2–11 ; Gal. 2:20 ; Col. 2:13 ; 1 Peter 2:24 ; 1 John 3:14 ). This article is concerned with the first and second deaths. Seventh-day Adventists conceive of humanity as an integral unity in which the component parts are interdependent. Upon the disintegration of this unity at the “first” death, conscious existence is no longer possible-the condition of humanity in death is “one of unconsciousness” ( Church Manual [1990], p. 181). The second death is the consuming of the wicked ( ibid. , p. 180). Seventh-day Adventists believe that men and women are by nature mortal beings, that immortality is conditional on accepting Christ, and that it will be bestowed simultaneously on all the saved of all ages, at the second coming of Christ ( 1 Cor. 15:22 , 23 , 51–54 ). Origin and Development of the Seventh-day Adventist View. The majority of adherents to the Millerite movement believed that human beings are conscious in death, and that the wicked will suffer eternal punishment. However, through the influence principally of George Storrs, a Methodist minister, a number espoused the doctrine of unconsciousness in death. Storrs got his doctrine from Henry Grew, a devout and critical student of the Bible, who in 1835 published a tract titled The Intermediate State . This tract set forth the concept that all of humanity is subject “to the dominion of death, and that hope of all future existence must be founded on the glorious doctrine of the resurrection from the grave” (Henry Grew, The Intermediate State [1844], preface, p. 2). Two years later (1837) Storrs read Grew’s pamphlet, but was at first skeptical of its teachings. However, being a sincere and diligent Bible student, Storrs searched the Scriptures on this point and, after three years, finally espoused Grew’s view. Soon after accepting this new teaching, he withdrew from the Methodist communion. He wrote three letters to an intimate friend, a prominent minister in the Methodist Church, in which he set forth his new convictions. A few months later Storrs had an interview with this minister, who advised him to publish the views expressed in the three letters. Taking his friend’s advice, Storrs issued An Enquiry; Are the Souls of the Wicked Immortal? In Three Letters (1841). After further intensive investigation of the subject, he expanded this work, which appeared in 1842 as a book titled An Enquiry; Are the Souls of the Wicked Immortal? In Six Sermons . This work, popularly known as Storrs’ Six Sermons, received wide circulation throughout the United States and exerted a profound influence on William Miller’s followers. Through the influence of Charles Fitch, a prominent Millerite leader, Storrs accepted, in mid-1842, the Millerite teaching concerning the imminence of the Second Advent. Later Storrs himself became prominent in the movement and led many of the Millerites to accept his views concerning humanity’s unconscious condition in death and the ultimate extermination of the impenitent. At first Storrs did not introduce his “peculiar” views directly into his public preaching, apparently so as not to distract attention from the more important message of the Lord’s imminent return. But as it was known that he held these views he was constantly met with inquirers, both ministers and private Christians, to whom he frankly stated his belief that “all the wicked will God destroy” (Six Sermons on the Inquiry: Is There Immortality in Sin and Suffering?[1855], p. 13). When, on several occasions in the fall of 1842, the Millerite periodical The Signs of the Times censured a minister who felt it his duty to preach not only the coming of the Lord but also what the end of the wicked would be, Storrs felt that he should keep silent no longer, and so he published 5,000 copies of a revised edition of his Six Sermons and scattered them over the United States. The following year (1843) he started the Bible Examiner , a periodical issued occasionally, whose object was expressed by its motto, “No Immortality, or Endless Life Except Through Jesus Christ Alone” ( ibid. , p. 17). In this journal he answered his critics and propagated his views. On Jan. 25, 1844, Charles Fitch, who had convinced Storrs of the imminence of the Second Advent, took his stand for the doctrines of unconsciousness in death and the destruction of the wicked. Concerning this he wrote, as quoted by Storrs in the later edition of his Six Sermons: “As you have long been fighting the Lord’s battles alone on the subject of the state of the dead and of the final doom of the wicked, I write this to say that I am at last, after much thought and prayer, and a full conviction of duty to God, prepared to take my stand by your side” ( ibid. , p. 15). Storrs’ writings convinced many Millerites that his positions were correct. Many other ministers in various other parts of the country also came to the same view. With few exceptions, however, the leaders of the Millerite movement were strongly opposed to Storrs’ teachings. This is clearly indicated in a letter by I. E. Jones, a Millerite preacher of Boston, to William Miller, dated Apr. 6, 1844: “I had the pleasure of seeing Brother Litch and Brother Whiting last week, and the last, and again this week, and they think as do our Boston brethren, Himes, Bliss and Hale, that something ought to be done to separate our influence from Brother Storrs’ views of the end of the wicked; for, as it now is, he virtually wields from our silence, the whole, or almost the whole, advent influence” (quoted in F. D. Nichol, The Midnight Cry , p. 192). It seems apparent that Storrs had a substantial following among the rank and file of the Millerites. But since the leaders as a whole were opposed to his views, opposition manifested itself. William Miller, among others, took Storrs to task for his views, and in a letter disclaimed “any connection, fellowship, or sympathy with Br. Storrs’ views of the intermediate state, and the end of the wicked” ( Midnight Cry 6:355, May 23, 1844). Another opponent, Josiah Litch, editor, organizer, and preacher in the Millerite movement, became so agitated that he published a paper against Storrs’ views, called the Anti-Annihilationist. But in spite of opposition from various sources, Storrs’ views took root. Among those who accepted them was Ellen G. Harmon (later Ellen G. White), who subsequently became a prominent leader and writer in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In the book Life Sketches . . . Experience and Extensive Labors of Elder James White and His Wife, Mrs. Ellen G. White (1880) Mrs. White relates how she came to adopt the conditionalist view concerning death and the annihilation of the wicked. She says: “One day I listened to a conversation between my mother and a sister, in reference to a discourse which they had recently heard, to the effect that the soul had not natural immortality. Some of the minister’s proof texts were repeated. . . . “I listened to these new ideas with an intense and painful interest. When alone with my mother, I inquired if she really believed that the soul was not immortal. Her reply was that she feared we had been in error on that subject, as well as upon some others. ‘But, mother,’ said I, ‘do you really believe that the soul sleeps in the grave until the resurrection? Do you think that the Christian, when he dies, does not go immediately to heaven, nor the sinner to hell?’ “She answered: ‘The Bible gives us no proof that there is an eternally burning hell. . . .’ “It was some months after this conversation before I heard anything further concerning this doctrine; but during this time my mind had been much exercised upon the subject. When I heard it preached, I believed it to be the truth” ( pp. 170, 171). The impact of Storrs’ views on the Millerites may be judged by the fact that one of the 10 fundamental principles adopted at the conference held in Albany, New York, on Apr. 29, 1845, stated that the inheritance of the departed saints is not received at death but at the Second Advent. Also indicative of the influence of Storrs’ views on the Millerites is the fact that in 1961 at least four of the five surviving religious bodies whose origins may be traced to the Millerite movement still held that man is unconscious in death, and at least three of the five held that the wicked will be destroyed in the second death. The exception is the Life and Advent Union, which holds that those who are not saved “will remain in their graves forever” (Frank S. Mead, Handbook of Denominations in the United States [1961], p. 23). About the time that Ellen Harmon accepted the views of humanity’s unconsciousness in death and of the destruction of the wicked, James White and Joseph Bates, Millerite preachers who later became prominent Seventh-day Adventist leaders, accepted them also. In A Word to the Little Flock (1847, pp. 3, 8, 10), one of the first publications of the group that later developed into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, White repeatedly speaks of the saints as being in their mortal state prior to the Second Advent, and Bates in his book Second Advent Waymarks and High Heaps (1847, p. 49) speaks of events that will come “after immortality” ( see Immortality ). The first clear statement by a Seventh-day Adventist leader concerning humanity’s unconscious condition in death appears to have been made by Roswell F. Cottrell, an early SDA leader, in the Review and Herald (4:157, Nov. 22, 1853), in which he declares: “‘The dead know not anything,’ and never will till they are raised from the dead, and that will not take place till Christ is seen in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” The first extended exposition of the SDA view on the end of the wicked appears to have been written by James White in a series of articles entitled “Destruction of the Wicked,” beginning with the Review and Herald (6:82, 83) issue of Oct. 24, 1854, in which he proposed to “describe the different kinds of hell believed in by men,” to “show the nature of the hell of the Bible,” and to “prove from the Bible what will be the final destiny of the wicked.” A year and a half later, he wrote in the Review and Herald (7:164, Feb. 21, 1856) that by the term annihilation he meant “destruction as conscious beings.” In 1874 an article entitled “A Declaration of the Fundamental Principles of Seventh-day Adventists” declared that “the wicked” become “as though they had not been” ( Signs of the Times 1:3, June 4, 1874). The first SDA book dealing with the (question of the first and second deaths was written by D. P. Hall, an SDA minister who later apostatized, and was titled Man Not Immortal: The Only Shield Against the Seductions of Modern Spiritualism (1854). This appeared first as a series of articles in the Review and Herald beginning in the Aug. 29, 1854, issue (6:17). These articles were followed a few months later by another series of articles by J. N. Loughborough, a pioneer leader, entitled “Is the Soul Immortal? An Examination of the Scripture Testimony Concerning Man’s Present Condition and His Future Reward or Punishment,” which first appeared in the Sept. 4, 1855, issue of the same periodical (7:33). These articles were published in book form in 1856 under the same title as the articles. By the mid-1850s SDA teachings concerning unconsciousness in death had become a settled doctrine. Among early SDA books on this subject were: Which? Mortal or Immortal? or An Inquiry Into the Present Constitution and Future Condition of Man , by Uriah Smith (1860); The Transgressor’s Fate, or A Short Argument on the First and Second Deaths , by Moses Hull (1861); History of the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul , by D. M. Canright (1871); and Man’s Nature and Destiny, or The State of the Dead, the Reward of the Righteous, and the End of the Wicked, by Uriah Smith (1884). Basis of the Seventh-day Adventist View . The Scriptures consistently teach that all created things subsist by the power of God ( Acts 17:25 , 28 ; Col. 1:16 , 17 ). They continue to exist by virtue of the fact that God wills them to exist. God created human beings with a free will capable of choosing to disobey; thus they would reap the consequence-death ( Gen. 2:16 , 17 ). Continued existence was made contingent upon continuing obedience. When Adam and Eve chose disobedience they would have been annihilated had not the Son of God in mercy offered to provide a vicarious atonement ( Gal. 1:4 ; Titus 2:14 ; cf. Gen. 3:15 ; John 3:16 ). But the life that Adam and Eve-and their posterity-now had was a temporal, probationary life. It was henceforth “appointed unto men once to die” ( Heb. 9:27 ; cf. Rom. 5:12 ). However, this death, which is the common lot of all humanity, is not annihilation but a temporary unconscious state, until the resurrection. The Scriptures repeatedly and explicitly declare this intermediate state to be a period of unconsciousness. The following are some of the Bible passages that Seventh-day Adventists have used to support this view. “In death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” ( Ps. 6:5 ). “The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth” ( Isa. 38:18 ; cf. Ps. 88:10–12 ). “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish” ( Ps. 146:2–4 ). “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence” ( Ps. 115:17 ). “[When a man dies] his sons come to honour and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them” ( Job 14:21 ). “The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing” ( Eccl. 9:5 ). “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” ( v. 10 ). SDA s also have used texts that refer to death as a “sleep,” a figure, they believe, that implies unconsciousness: “Now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shall seek me in the morning but I shall not be” ( Job 7:21 ). “Man dieth, . . . and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep” ( Job 14:10–12 ). “Lazarus sleepeth. . . . Lazarus is dead” ( John 11:11 , 13 ). “They stoned Stephen. . . . And . . . he fell asleep” ( Acts 7:59 , 60 ). “They . . . which are fallen asleep in Christ” ( 1 Cor. 15:18 ). For the second death, which represents complete cessation of being, see Hell . See also Immortality ; Resurrection .